WAR ON CHICK-FIL-A

Catalyst September Issue 2012

A controversy was recently sparked when Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy came out in support of traditional marriage. Cathy said that we are “inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’” Cathy never mentioned homosexuals, yet created a firestorm labeling him and his fast-food chain anti-gay.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members.” Indeed, Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno has been attempting to block the construction of a new Chick-fil-A partly due to worry about its “business practices.”

A New York Times editorial said, “Antigay remarks like these are offensive.” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino made it clear he wouldn’t welcome the restaurant in his city when he said, “I don’t want an individual who will continue to advocate against people’s rights. That’s who I am and that’s what Boston’s all about.”

To their credit, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, the ACLU and even Barney Frank were critical of the various comments of these public officials.

Dershowitz told Newsmax.com that the mayors were demonstrating “terrible intolerance” and that a city is not free to discriminate against a company due to the views of its owners; the ACLU of Illinois called Moreno’s attempt to block construction an “open and shut” case of discrimination; and the openly-gay congressman Frank said that while he wouldn’t eat at Chick-fil-A, he doesn’t believe that government officials should punish the company based on the views of its owner.

It was also disturbing that Mitt Romney completely skirted the controversy. In a lengthy interview with Newsmax, Bill Donohue said he was “astonished” and “disheartened” by Romney’s agnosticism: “I’m astonished that he couldn’t even come to grips with the question—leaving gays out of it—do we want the chief executives, the mayors of large cities trying to intimidate, using the power of government against private enterprises whose politics they disagree with?”

According to the logic of Cathy’s critics, almost everyone who has ever lived has been an anti-homosexual bigot. Such hyperbole relegates real gay bashing to the trash bin.

Nature, and Nature’s God, has ordained that marriage is the exclusive province of a man and a woman; they are the only two people capable of naturally creating a family. But now we are expected to believe that such a pedestrian view is wrongheaded. Worse, there is a growing segment of the population, overwhelmingly white and well-educated, who want to punish those who hold to the traditional view. This is madness laced with fascistic elements.